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Wednesday, September 09, 2015

We are all Sodomites

A guest post by Y. Bloch
Sodom and Gomorrah are two of the most famous cities in the Bible,
but Moses doesn't even mention them until the very end of his life, as
he describes in this week's Torah portion what Israel will look like if
the people violate God's covenant (Deut. 29:23):

The
whole land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and
unproductive, and no grass grows there, like the overthrow of Sodom and
Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and wrath.

So, like the weather we've had this past week, but smelling much worse.
A few chapters later, Moses describes this is in a more poetic way (32:32-33):

For their vine is from the vine of Sodomand from the fields of Gomorrah;their grapes are grapes of poison;their clusters are bitter.Their wine is the venom of dragonsand the cruel poison of cobras.

Interestingly, Moses traces all this cruelty, bitterness and poison to a specific individual or type, "a root bearing poisonous and caustic fruit...when
he hears the words of this covenant, he blesses himself in his heart,
saying, 'I shall have peace, even though I proceed according to the
capriciousness of my heart,' so that the saturated destroys the thirsty"
(29:18-19).
Saturated is how, of course, Sodom and its sister cities are first described (Gen. 13:10): "the valley of the Jordan, which was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. This was before the Lord
destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah." The Jordan Valley is contrasted with
"the land of Canaan," famine-prone and always thirsting for rain.
Metaphorically, the well-watered are the well-off, and Ezekiel
(16:49-50) makes it clear that this is the root of Sodom's poisonous
cruelty:

This
was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. Pride, abundance of bread, and
careless ease was in her and in her daughters, but she would not
strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. They were haughty and did what is taboo before Me. Therefore I took them away when I saw it.

Yes, like that term taboo (toeva), sodomy (middat Sedom) is often misunderstood. Toeva is biblical, while middat Sedom
only appears in rabbinical literature; nevertheless, some have an
almost pathological need to associate these terms with sexual
orientation and ignore their original context. Take what Maimonides (Laws of Neighbors 12:1) says about the Talmudic definition of sodomy--in the context of partners dividing property:

If
one of the partners said: "Give me my portion on this side so that it
will be close to another field which I own, so that they will be one
large field, " his request is heeded, and we compel the other partner to
grant him this privilege. For holding back in such a situation would be
the character of a Sodomite.

When one withholds benefit from another out of pure caprice, that is sodomy. The Mishnaic Ethics of the Fathers puts it this way (5:10):

There
are four types of people: One who says, "What is mine is yours, and
what is yours is mine" is an ignoramus. One who says "What is mine is
mine, and what is yours is yours" -- this is the intermediate
characteristic; others say that this is the character of a Sodomite. One
who says, "What is mine is yours, and what is yours is yours" is a pious person. And one who says "What is mine is mine, and what is yours is mine" is wicked.

Perhaps
the most shocking element of that dissection of human personality is
not the reference to Sodom, but what "others" refer to it as: "the
intermediate characteristic." This is not a dissenting view, as the
"others" agree as to the definition of the pious and wicked poles.
Instead, this underscores that sodomy is not unusual; it is average,
mundane, the default setting. The citizens of Sodom and its daughter
cities fall far below this, as their vine produces venomous wine--but it
all starts with a shockingly simple and so-so statement: "What is mine
is mine, and what is yours is yours." It is the meridian of mediocrity,
telling the thirsty to keep off their well-watered lawn.
The "intermediate" status is one with special resonance this time of year, as the Talmud teaches (Rosh Hashana 16b):

R.
Kruspedai said in the name of R. Johanan: Three books are opened [in
heaven] on the New Year, one for the thoroughly wicked, one for the
thoroughly righteous, and one for the intermediate. The thoroughly
righteous are forthwith inscribed definitively in the book of life; the
thoroughly wicked are forthwith inscribed definitively in the book of
death; the doom of the intermediate is suspended from the New Year till
the Day of Atonement; if they deserve well, they are inscribed in the
book of life; if they do not deserve well, they are inscribed in the
book of death.

Mediocrity is no
place to live; one inexorably moves towards one pole or the other. That
is why we have the period of the Ten Days of Repentance: for the
intermediate. For the average Sodomite. For us.

If it relates to Jews, Judaism, holidays, Midrash,Torah, halacha or anything similar, I probably have a post on it. And if I have a post on it, I probably have a good comment thread with great reader-provided information, too.

Try a search and see for yourself. If you can't find what you're looking for ask me.

Quotes

רֹאשׁ דְּבָרְךָ אֱמֶת קוֹרֵא מֵרֹאשׁ דּוֹר וָדוֹר עַם דּוֹרֶשְׁךָ דְּרֹשׁ
Your chief word is "truth"; You've called it out since the beginning. In each generation people interpret You [for themselves] and find [their own] meaning.

You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd. -Flannery O'Connor

“When in the afterglow of religious insight I can see a way that is good for all humans as it is for me—I will know it is His way.” - R. Abraham Joshua Heschel

I don't accept at all the quite popular argument that the press is responsible for the monarchy's recent troubles. The monarchy's responsible for the monarchy's recent troubles. To blame the press is the old thing of blaming the messenger for the message. -Anthony Holden

Said behind my back

"...he's trying to show that there are other facets to Orthodox Judaism. That we don't all think one way and vote one way. And he's occasionally entertaining when he's not being mean-spirited" [PsychoToddler]"

"He's witty. He's funny. He appreciates the ridiculous in life, and has no qualms about telling you when he thinks that you're being a moron" [Cara]

" I'm pretty sure [DovBear] is a really great guy who just wants to be able to ask questions and talk about things without the fear of someone claiming he's off the derech or on his way there." [Chaviva]